Hari Om Parents,
Below is a recap of what we did during today's class. As always, we began our class with 3 OMs and the following shlokas.
1. "Om Saha Navavatu" (page 8 in My Prayers book)
2."Vakrathunda Mahakaya" (page 27 in My Prayers book)
3. "Saraswathi Namasthubhyam" (page 12 in My Prayers book)
4. "Karagre Vasate" (page 11 in My Prayers book)
5. "Samudhra Vasane" (page 11 in My Prayers book)
6. "Shubam Karoti" (page 12 in My Prayers book)
7. "Gurur Brahma" (page 60 in My Prayers book)
8. "Brahmarpanam" (page 12 in My Prayers book)
9. "Krishnaya Vasudevaya" (page 105 in My Prayers book)
10. "Sri Rama Rama" (page 129 in My Prayers book)
11. "Budhir Balam" (page 152 in My Prayers book)
12. "Kara Charana" (page 12 in My Prayers book)
Krishnashtakam : We practised the first two shlokas and learnt the third shloka : Kutilaalaka samyuktam - Poornachandra nibhaananam - Vilasath kundaladharam devam - Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum
We explained the meaning - One with dark curly hair and the face like the full moon with his ear drops shining, salutations to the teacher of the universe.
Today's lesson - 24 Teachers
We started with a riddle : I do not have a definite shape, color or taste. I am extremely important for all living things. Who am I ?
The kids got the answer to this very quickly... Yes today's teacher is Water
Water is by nature, clean, pure and refreshing.
The water of holy rivers purifies one by darshan, touch or even by saying its name. We asked if anyone knew the names of any holy rivers. Many of them knew - Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari...River Ganga is one the holiest and is mentioned in many of our ancient scriptures. The River Ganga purifies people by vision, touch and even by uttering her name.
Good people are like these rivers, who can revive others by good deeds and thoughts and by their sight, touch and words.
Speech is a gift of God, that was given only to humans, and we must use this gift wisely. We have to learn to speak only good and sweet words.
We discussed if we are using this gift well or misusing it. Some people misuse it by telling lies, exaggerating, having a forked tongue or by speaking bad words. How do we learn bad words ? No one teaches us..but we somehow learn these things by watching bad tv shows or being in bad company. It's important to guard our senses so we can shut off such bad things before we learn them.
Story - Once a King, his minister and servant went to a forest. After sometime they all got separated from each other. The King comes across a blind man sitting under a tree and asks him "O Prajnachakshu ji (one with the eye of knowledge)...did you see someone pass by from here". The blind man says "O KIng...no". After some time the minister meets the same man and asks him "O Surdas ji (a great saint who was blind) did you see someone pass by from here". The blind man says " O minister... no". After some time the servant also meets the man and asks him "O blind man, did you see anyone pass by from here." The blind man says "O servant...no". After a while the King, Minister and the servant meet and wonder how the blind man could recognise who they were and answer accordingly. When they go back to the man and ask him, he tells them that he could recognize them by the words used by each one of them.
This story shows how the words spoken show their personality. It is important to always speak good and sweet words.
Story - A young boy Gopala, takes the cattle to graze in the forest everyday. One day he starts hearing strange noises. He gets scared. He shouts "Who is there" The answer comes back "Who is there" ,"who is there" Whatever Gopal asks, is getting repeated. Gopal gets very angry and shouts "you are a crook!" this comes back again to him. Now Gopal is sure that there are some bad guys in the forest trying to trouble him. He is very scared and goes home. His mother hears the story and understands that it is an echo. She tells Gopal not to be scared and when he goes to the forest the next day, he should greet them and say nice words. Gopal follows her advice and shouts" Namaste friend". The answer comes back "Namaste friend" He shouts "You are a nice boy". This repeats again. Gopal is not scared any more. He soon learns that not just in the forest, but everyone, if he says nice words, he gets nice words back, just like the echo.
We discussed a few more points - The maximum control an archer has, is before he releases the arrow. That is when he needs to be careful so the arrow hits the target. Once it is released, it cannot be taken back or change direction. Similarly, one should be careful before speaking, because once the words come out of the mouth, there is no taking back and the result will be as per the words spoken.
Dirt makes things dirty and water makes everything clean.
Whoever comes in contact with you should feel fresh and happy, not muddy and sad.
Be like water….always speak sweetly and be pleasant!
Birth of Krishna - After we completed this lesson, we watched a 10 minute video about the birth of Krishna.
Gita Chanting – We followed Swamiji's videos to learn shlokas 39-42 of Chapter 2.
Wordwall game – The kids played a word search game on wordwall based on the lesson learnt last week, about the limbs of Lord Vishnu.
Aarti and Pledge - We concluded the class with Aarti and pledge.
Looking forward to seeing the kids in class next Sunday!
Pranam,
Neelima & Keerthi